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Stark
Recipes

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An illustrated Jewish cookbook can turn the kitchen
into a family room.

DAVID HOVEL SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

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WERE FIGHTING FOR YOUR LIFE

ver opened a cookbook and
felt like you're staring at
Moby Dick, with its sheer
heft, interminable lists and
obscure plot line? If you have,
Mark Stark's Amazing Jewish
Cookbook may lure you back into
the kitchen.
"There are so many people in
my generation who, when they get
a cookbook, they seem so help-
less," says Stark, a 31-year-old
master baker in Los Angeles. "But
it shouldn't be so complicated."
Stark combined his culinary
talents with a love of art to come
up with an illustrated cookbook
arranged around the Jewish
holidays. As the book's cover
makes clear, the recipes are in-
tended for families to follow to-
gether.
And the instructions are sim-
ple enough to keep children —
and inept adults — on track. Each
recipe contains line drawings of
ingredients, tools and step-by-step
procedures to make dishes as com-
plex as challah (30 steps) and as
simple as scrambled eggs (5
steps).
Stark learned to cook at his
mother's side, all the while mak-
ing mental notes of how to pre-
pare her Jewish delicacies.
"Rather than writing down, I vi-
sualized, memorized different
types of recipes," he says.
He earned a bachelor of fine
arts degree at Arizona State Uni-
versity and later attended the Cal-
ifornia Culinary Academy in San
Francisco. He operated a gourmet
bakery in
the city by the bay before return-
ing to his hometown, Los Ange-
les, where he teaches and consults
for bakeries and restaurants.
His Jewish cookbook rounds
up the usual suspects: noodle
kugel for Tu B'Shevat, latkes for
Chanukah, matzah brei for
Passover and blintzes for
Shavuot.
But Stark also serves some sur-
prises. Betcha didn't think you
could make bagels or dill pickles
at home. The cookbook provides
instructions for both.
"I wrote my book with the in-
tention that ultimately everyone
could use what [supplies and
tools] they have in their kitchen,"
Stark says. "Dill pickles are an ex-
ample. They seems so complicat-
ed, but they're really not."

E

David Holzel is managing editor
of our sister paper, the Atlanta
Jewish Times.

The book includes a thumbnail
description of each holiday, safe-
ty tips, the basics of kashrut, an
illustrated glossary of cooking
terms and a ticket to the funhouse
world of dry and liquid measures
(2 cups = 16 ounces ... 8 table-
spoons = 1/2 cup. Who came up
with this system?).
While Stark makes the dis-
tinction between dairy and meat,
vegetarians should beware: The

Mark Stark
believes
taste buds make
the best teacher.

stuffed mushroom recipe is stuffed
with chicken stock and the split-
pea soup calls for 3 pounds of flank
steak.
"Jewish cooking is not really
vegetarian," Stark says. "Using
chicken stock or meat adds a lot
more flavor and that traditional
taste."
He believes that for Jews and
gentiles alike, taste buds make
the best teacher. "If I could reach
out to one individual to shape the
culture of Judaism, and that one
new person would learn
one new recipe and the meaning
of that recipe," he says elliptical-
ly.
Some of the meanings are well
known: "Potato latkes
are traditionally served at
Chanukah. They're cooked in oil,
symbolizing the oil of the eight
days of Chanukah," Stark says.
Others are more obscure.
Scrambled eggs? "Traditionally,
whenever I'm at a delicatessen,
it's [scrambled eggs] with salami.
It was almost a peasant type of
food. I imagine it as a staple in a
Jewish person's life back years
ago."
Now imagine you and your chil-
dren peeling, dicing, kneading and
mashing your way to a Jewish
meal. Stark's cookbook will help
you visualize that scene faster
than you can say kasha var-
nishkes.

❑

To order Mark Stark's Amaz-
ing Jewish Cookbook, call the
Alef Design Group, (800) 845-
0662.

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